


With Disgust

by bewareofitalics



Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Domestic Violence, F/M, Misogyny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-27
Updated: 2013-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-13 04:24:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/819949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewareofitalics/pseuds/bewareofitalics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She took a lover, the first comer, a man she did not love, out of bravado, and with rage in her heart. He was a lazy wretch, a street musician, who beat her and left her, as she had taken him, with disgust." - Les Misérables, Fantine, Book Five, Chapter Ten</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Disgust

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2004.

Fantine felt something move on her leg. She kicked it away and looked down angrily. “That wasn’t very nice,” said a lazy, drawling voice that came from a man sitting on the street, his back resting against a building. One careless hand held a violin, the bow dangled from the other. It was the bow which had stopped Fantine.

“Good day, monsieur,” said Fantine stiffly.

“How much?” asked the man.

“Excuse me?”

“How much?” the man repeated. His bow continued its exploration of Fantine’s legs, lifting her skirts.

“Stop that!” said Fantine, gathering her skirts in tightly. “What do you want of me?”

“What any man would want from a woman walking the streets at this hour,” the man replied. “How much?”

Fantine stared at him, then burst into wild laughter. “Oh!” she said. “You think I am that kind of woman! I am not, monsieur, I am bad, but not so bad as that.”

“Pity,” said the man. He stood up, letting his bow trace Fantine’s form on the way. “I’ve taken quite a liking to you.”

Fantine flushed, it was hard to say whether from shame or pleasure. She rarely got compliments these days. Though a cap disguised her shorn hair, she no longer had a river of gold to distract men from the growing circles under her eyes. “Thank you,” she said. A factory woman she knew by sight passed, shaking her head as she glanced curiously in Fantine’s direction. Fantine raised her chin defiantly. “Come with me,” she said to the man. She grabbed his hand and placed it on her waist, willing herself not to wince at his touch. 

“I think I will,” said the man. He bent to pick up his violin and hatful of coins, stopping to pinch Fantine’s behind.

^^^^^^

“Ugly bitch,” the man said the next morning. Fantine’s cap had come off in the night, revealing her short, choppy hair.

“So! You have seen my secret!” said Fantine with a forced laugh. Hatred burned in her heart as tears burned in her eyes. “Does it not please you?”

In reply, the man hit Fantine so hard that she tumbled off the bed. As she looked up at him, terror in her eyes, he grabbed her face and kissed her roughly. “I’ll come back tonight,” he said. The door slammed behind him.

Fantine gingerly touched her bruising head and jarred neck. Stripped of her bravado, the tears she had held in since the evening before were finally released.


End file.
